[...] " For two warm seasons in a row, typically the time of greater fighting, the rebels have made a limited tactical showing. Some have switched sides, leaving the forests to join with Ramzan Kadyrov, the young Chechen prime minister who has aligned with the Kremlin.

Valery Kuznetsov, the senior prosecutor in Chechnya, said the separatists’ weakness had become apparent. “Their combat activity is on the decline, while they surrender in greater quantities,” he said by telephone from Grozny, the capital. "